if you live in this part of america right now, that record is the truth of this american industry and how it operates. and no matter how much everybody loves oil industry jobs it also raises still the question of how much the country needs protecting from behavior like this from these companies who keep telling us they need further access to more sensitive areas, and not to worry because they know what they are doing. tonight, coast guard officials there in alaska are describing the shell oil rig as upright and stable. the plan at this point is to land rescue workers onto the deck to determine the damage it sustained, and look into the oil that is now rocking on board. we'll keep you posted as they tell us more. and meanwhile, your tax dollars will keep helping the most profitable industry on earth, the oil and gas industry, to the tune of billions every year. now it is time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell, have a good night.

so as expected we went off the cliff. less than 24 hours. >> the ayes have it, accordingly, the house stands adjourned. >> with 58 minutes to spare, congress averted the fiscal cliff. nobody is celebrating this morning, but the deal is done. >> the tax issue has been resolved. >> the house approved. >> john boehner got rolled. >> john boehner has had permanent damage done to him. >> john boehner walked past harry reid and said go blank yourself, and then bragged about it. >> does he even want this job anymore? >> one long national nightmare is now finally over.

>> the debt ceiling. >> the debt ceiling is coming. >> no. >> the sequesters are coming. >> cue the next countdown clock. >> i will not have another debate with this congress. >> house republicans see it as a trump card. >> they should pay the bills they have already racked up. >> while they approve this deal to avert the fiscal cliff. >> last night the house of representatives failed. >> there was no deal to send money to the victims of hurricane sandy. >> lawmakers from new jersey were angry. >> last night it was my party responsible. >> they are leaving this party without help. >> congress. >> congress. >> congress. >> the laughing stock of the country. >> 66 days and counting, shame on you, shame on congress. >> all right, let's get a couple of things straight here, okay?

first of all, there is nothing wrong with legislating at the last minute. in fact, on the big stuff, the politically difficult bills it is usually impossible to legislate before the last minute. now if you never found yourself going to the post office at the last minute with your tax return in hand, you may not understand it. and if you're one of those people that never studied before the last minute on final exams, then you may, too, have trouble understanding it. but nothing much will get done before the deadline. and in legislation, which is essentially a talking process, me trying to convince you to do something you don't want to do or you trying to convince me, and you're never allowed to hit me or pull a gun on me. and you're only allowed to reason with me it is very, very

unlikely that you will get me to change my mind, very unlikely you will get me to do something i don't want to do before the very last minute. all legislative leaders in the congress have always known this. that is why they have deadlines in congress. a deadline is that point on the calendar. that hour in the day when you are left in congress with nothing but one word to say. yes, or no. if you leave members of congress with time to say more than one word they will. they will talk, and talk forever. about why they don't want to do the difficult thing. and only at the deadline can you get them to actually say yes or no to doing the difficult thing. 89 said yes in the united states senate. 257 said yes in the house of representatives. at the deadline. and they could only do it after the technical deadline of the fiscal cliff had passed. but before the practical deadline of the stock market opening this morning, and today the stock market that had

remained calm throughout the fiscal cliff melodrama gave a standing ovation to the result. the dow closed up 308 points. the markets obviously didn't care that the deal was done at the last minute. in fact, the markets always correctly expected the deal to be done at the last minute. and the other thing, the other thing we have to get straight right now is did the president get a good deal? and i have this question for anyone who says the president and joe biden got a bad deal, they caved. as some of the on-line headlines said caved to republicans on income tax rates. caved. and that question is this, when is the last time you

successfully negotiated an income tax increase with republican senators and congressmen? i will save you some time with that answer right now. there is no democrat or liberal working in government or politics today or commenting on government and politics today who has ever, ever negotiated an income tax increase with republicans. the last time republican members of congress agreed to vote for an income tax increase they did so in support of a republican president who was pleading with them to do it. 22 years ago. now let's consider the evolution of the democrats' position on the top income tax rates this time. >> democrats had originally called for tax cuts for people below 250,000, republicans for everybody. what if we moved it up to a million? everybody below a million will get a tax cut, but the

millionaires and billionaires won't. i think it is a good compromise. >> so president obama was not negotiating just with republicans on exactly where the top income bracket should be. many democrats in the senate and the house wanted it to be higher. >> and for definitely -- letting die the tax cuts for people making over a million dollars a year, let's begin by getting tax cuts for people making over a million dollars a year. i'm not even saying 250. >> i know. >> and the president is saying 250. >> with friends like those, tell me, tell me, how was the president ever supposed to hold the top income tax bracket all the way down at $250,000? because once you give up ground publicly in legislative strategy, the way chuck schumer and nancy pelosi did, it is impossible to get it back until new year's eve when the

president was able to actually get most of that back. get a deal with republicans on a top income tax bracket that kicks in way below a million dollars. it kicks in at $400,000 of income. and some reported that as the president caving. but $250,000 was what the democrats legislated as the top income tax bracket 20 years ago, an index for inflation as income tax brackets are, the top income tax bracket has moved up since then to $397,000. that is what it was last week. last week, under the bush tax rate, the top income tax bracket was $397,000, just as it would have been if the clinton tax rates had never been overridden by the bush tax rates. so $400,000 this week, being taxed at 39.6%, the clinton rate, is exactly where we would be tonight if bill clinton's tax rates had never been repealed.

and anyone who believes president obama gave up too much to the republicans, has to tell us what he or she would have given up to the republicans in order to get an extension of unemployment insurance for people who desperately need it. unemployment insurance that was going to be cut off today. for more on the deal, joining me now, our resident fiscal cliff deal experts, "the washington post" ezra klein, and jared bernstein, since joe biden was so key in putting together this deal, give me your take on the deal. >> look, i think the deal was kind of a small step in absolutely the right direction. i'm not quite as bullish in many ways as you just sounded, although i thought your argument was very compelling. i kept telling myself as i listened to you, i thought this was kind of dysfunctional the

way you just went through it. made it sound a lot better. and i thought you made a lot of compelling points, lawrence, look i thought the revenue was a little bit light. i also thought the debt ceiling, the sequester, hits again, comes back in march, the automatic spending cuts. i thought the estate tax, the democrats met the republicans a little bit more on their side of the field on that one. but look, the general point moves in the right direction. $600 billion in revenue over ten years. the unemployment, i don't think you mentioned a set of refundable tax credits to help the low income people. all this is movement in the

right direction. and you know, for me, the main criteria, are we moving in a situation where we'll have a funded government, whether we maintain that direction has a lot to do with some big upcoming fights in a matter of weeks. >> ezra the question i'm trying to get to is not what i would want. i would want much higher brackets going on upper income levels, ten million, 100 million, there are a lot of different levels i would like in the tax structure. but given what the president was trying to do, to get to that 39.6 threshold, the old clinton threshold. and given the fact that you have to do this with a republican house of representatives the whole exercise begins with you're not going to get everything you want, especially

when you're trying to negotiate pieces that have nothing to do with the fiscal cliff. that there is no automatic outcome on the fiscal cliff like the unemployment insurance sentence. >> i have -- >> what i have been trying to get at ezra is the practical outcome, and i personally believe i can't see how they could have under these circumstances negotiated a better practical outcome with the opponents they were negotiating with. >> i think it is simultaneously true this is probably about the best outcome they could have had given the circumstances. and it is not, as jared said, an ideal deal. look, i'm more in your camp here, lawrence, i think the deal was actually pretty good. i think the key point about this deal is they pocketed about $36 billion of revenue and didn't

really give up a dollar in spending. they didn't give up a dollar in anything. what is going to ultimately decide whether or not they got a good deal though is what comes next. here is what republicans believe will happen, we'll hit the debt ceiling, the republicans will threaten to push the country into debt ceiling, unless the republicans allow enormous cuts. and no tax increases. so in the end you will have enormous spending cuts and increases in taxes. the republicans say no way, they will not be held hostage on the debt ceiling. and if republicans want cuts coming up, they have to off set it with tax increases. and if the white house is right about it, then i think we'll look back, add up all the numbers and it will look like a pretty good deal.

with one exception, we're losing the stimulus and not replacing it. but if the white house is right they can get taxes in the next phase of the deal too, i think it will look good. >> yeah, ezra, and i'm prepared to analyze what this deal was right here without necessarily making it how good it is depending on what happens in the future. but i agree with you what is coming. and jared, i agree with the president very carefully about what he is saying, he will not negotiate on the debt ceiling. he has absolutely ruled out using his own executive powers raising the debt ceiling. so it seems to me what he is saying when the republicans come to him to negotiate massive spending cuts on the debt ceiling, he is simply going to say no. and he is going to dare them to

go up again against the debt ceiling, and risk the country crashing into the debt ceiling, on the belief that they have learned the lesson and they wouldn't do it. >> wow, you know, you may be right. but i think that is kind of a tough belief if that is where he is coming from. because i'm not convinced and i doubt that you two are that the republicans won't go over what i believe is actually a real cliff on like the fiscal cliff, which is defaulting. and so when i hear the president say i will not negotiate with republicans over the debt ceiling that makes me feel very good. because to me, the quality of the deal that we have been talking about right now is fully a function of the president maintaining that stance. if he goes anywhere near this thing that is called the boehner rule, where john boehner says for every dollar increase we give you in the debt ceiling you have to give us spending cuts. and by the way, the republicans think they're out of the tax spending business. the president thinks they will. they also believe they have the leverage now with the debt ceiling. the only way the president gives

him that leverage is to negotiate with them. so he has to stand very, very firm on that. >> i'm betting that he is going to stay tough on the debt ceiling. and i'm also betting, i may be the only one. i think they're going to pull more revenue out in the next congress through tax reform elements on deductions and exemptions, we'll see what happens on that. ezra klein and jared bernstein, thank you. and coming up, republican governor chris christie versus boehner, and university john king, versus john boehner. and more on hillary clinton's condition and the republicans who lied about that. and in the rewrite tonight, the secret governing, totally secret governing that took place in the united states senate today even though it was on c-span, it was completely a secret. i know you have been told the senate is closed after the fiscal cliff vote. but that is not true. the truth is that the senate works better than you think. and it did that today. that is coming up. i tell them de very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can grow and multiply. polident is specifically designed to clean dentures daily. its unique micro-clean formula kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. that's why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. cleaner, fresher, brighter every day.

it is hard out there for a boehner, house speaker john boehner couldn't even get the support from his leadership team on the fiscal cliff yesterday. and some republicans say the disarray, the chaos inside the republican party will only get worse. that is next with krystal ball and richard wolff. and if you think 89 votes for the fiscal cliff deal was amazing, and it kind of was. how about 100? that is how many votes harry reid got in the senate today for some important things that nobody is telling you about. that is in the rewrite.

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a lot of this debate in washington is, i think, driven by the president who wants to destroy the republican party. >> but he said no, you have to raise rates, why? because he knew that would accentuate the fractures, the fissures in the republican party, neutralize the one opposition to this institution. that is exactly what happened, he succeeded in that.

the house has been neutered, you saw that last night. and if he gets the house in the way, he can be dominated for the entire length. >> palace intrigue, linked to this article, house majority eric cantor expressed his opposition to the senate bill before boehner had taken a stand, when the majority leader said out loud what most republicans were thinking about the fiscal cliff bill. there was admiration, the leaks were out, they wondered if a cantor brew was happening. so the rumors, just completely out of control. we'll know soon enough, the house elections thursday. >> yeah, we will know soon enough. and it was also interesting not only on the fiscal cliff deal. but with sandy relief, cantor went and through them right under the bus. cantor is worried about his

position and the donors he has in the new york and new jersey area. it is interesting how quickly he brought the long knives out. i don't think that cantor will organize a coup for this week, personally, partly because anyone who is speaker of the house has to deal with the basic dynamics that john boehner is dealing with. and that is not particularly an attractive position for somebody to be in right now. >> there is fox news -- there is o'reilly and krauthammer, bringing them down even further, saying that the republican house has been neutered. >> you know, if only the white house were this good. and secondly -- >> krauthammer is pretending the house of representatives has disappeared and the president doesn't have to deal with them. >> and also a little bit

paranoid to be able to self-diagnose on that. it is not that cantor somehow doesn't want the job. we all know he wants the job. that is where the rumors come from. but there is an even sweeter spot being the speaker, there is one position, being in the opposition to the opposition. you can be in opposition to obama and being in opposition to the establishment. so why would you ever want that job? you can be much more popular not having the job. they used to say that the vice president's job was the worst in washington. actually right now, being leader of the house -- >> looks pretty good right now. >> some fascinating votes here, i mean, in the house you had paul ryan, he issued a statement voting for it. and paul ryan saying listen, this is the best thing we can do

under these circumstances. the reasonable man's statement. senate marco rubio, votes against it, which seems like the right vote if you want to run for president next time. can you imagine how rubio and ryan, ryan voted for it, rubio in the lead. >> after rubio took that vote, i was really surprised when paul ryan took that vote. i was stunned by that vote. and i think it was, rubio was thinking he needs to shore up the right flank, paul ryan must be calculating that he has the crud down, maybe he needs to play more for the donor base, in new york, the folks who didn't want to go over the cliff. he is looking like i have the conservatives down, i need to be a reasonable guy. >> the ryan thing was easy to explain. number one, he actually watches the show.

he knows that losing vice president candidates knows that they never become president. he may as well go along with the leadership, he is never going to be president, that is obvious. >> and he is going to vote against immigration reform, and rubio -- he is thinking ahead, he is thinking about next week's show. >> he is thinking about the way to play this. let's look at what "the national review" said today about the sense, talking sense to conservatives. the deal is worth passing. conservatives who judge these matters should make the case without suggesting falsely the taxes would have stayed down if only boehner would not have caved. they should not over sell it, limit the damage, their slogan and battle cry. krystal, that is the point. if you're going to attack

boehner and these guys you will have to pretend that all rates were not going to go up if they had not done it. >> right, and interestingly, even though you only had 86 republicans vote for it they did decide to let it go to an up or down vote to the house rather than pushing for that amended bill, and basically throwing the whole thing to chaos. i think they looked down the barrel of the gun, decided they didn't want to go over the fiscal cliff either. >> but the 47 votes was huge. >> the republicans now think the bush tax cuts are caving. the republicans do not believe in a system where rich people pay more tax because they want a flat tax. that is how far they traveled in four years. >> krystal ball, and richard wolff, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> coming up, more republicans bashing more republicans, including what governor chris christie thinks now about his party. and in the rewrite, the secrets of the united states senate, the secrets the media never tells you about, even though they're right there happening on c-span.

governor chris christie is mad as hell and he is not going to take it anymore, from house republicans. why john boehner refuses to take chris christie's phone calls. that is next. and in the rewrite tonight, what the senate did today. that is right, today, the united states senate. i know you have been told that the senate is closed for business. that is not true.

harry reid got some good work done in the senate today and he

got 100 votes for things that for some strange reason no one has told you anything about. there is only one group the blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims. the house majority and their speaker, john boehner. last night, politics was placed before our oath, to serve our citizens.

for me, it was disappointing and disgusting to watch. >> that was new jersey's republican governor chris christie today slamming fellow republican john boehner for cancelling a vote late last night that would have provided billions of dollars in federal aid to victims of hurricane sandy. in the spotlight tonight, republicans versus republicans. republican congressman peter king of new york attacked his leader's decision earlier today. >> republicans have no trouble finding new york when it comes to raising money. and i would just say anyone from new york or new jersey who contributes one penny to congressional republicans after this should have their head examined. >> john boehner's decision not to vote on hurricane relief for sandy last night once more puts him at odd with the house majority leader, eric cantor. >> this failure to get relief now could be called the boehner

betrayal. here is the irony, the more conservative leader of the house membership eric cantor was supportive. >> i spoke to majority leader cantor today, i have to tell you that i think that eric was working as hard as he could to get this done for us. i'm not going to get into the specifics of what i discussed with john boehner today. but what i will tell you is there is no reason for me at the moment to believe anything they tell me. >> joining me now, new york assemblyman representing staten island, michael kusak, this republican stuff is wild. i mean, there is chris christie saying you know, i mean, john boehner is a liar of some kind. and then it is eric, it is first name eric, with eric cantor. everyone thinks that chris christie wants to be a republican presidential candidate. it is getting stranger and stranger, imagining chris christie on a republican primary stage with all of this bashing of republicans he is willing to do. >> yeah, it is amazing, palace

intrigue at its worst. eric cantor is now the new jersey and new york's politician's best friend when it comes to sandy relief. the worse, he is a terrible speaker and doesn't know what he is doing. but 85 members had to walk the plank, vote for tax cuts with no spending cuts. he didn't feel like he could make them walk the blank again. he is in a bind, john boehner is in an impossible situation and has this deputy, eric cantor, in an impossible situation. >> and you're from staten island. i don't think everybody understands that the new york delegation normally sends exactly one republican to the house of representatives, that is your congressman, michael grim, who you just reelected. he had a serious problem with what went on here. >> yes, as did all the elected officials, what happened in congress was a disgrace. lawrence, you have been in staten island, and in new york

with all the devastation. we're not asking for a handout. this is devastation, other parts of the country got relief. and that is what we're asking for is relief from our government. and the help they need. you saw it firsthand, the people saw it firsthand. these folks need this money. this money will go to use to help people rebuild their lives and houses. and rebuild their businesses. >> and joy, one of the interesting political dynamics of this, this is not staten island asking for a handout. this is staten island asking for its money back. the state of new york and new york city sends way more money into the federal treasury through the income tax than it ever gets back in federal spending.

>> yeah, absolutely, new york and new jersey are both donor states. >> yes, and chris christie made this point very well today. >> it was one of the most effective parts of the presentation, he walked through disasters, louisiana, florida, he talked about them giving more in taxes than they ever get back, they're just asking for some of this money back when they're in dire need. and they're also political donors, they come to new york when they have to raise money to get reelected. and now for politicians saying they have to wait is both cruel and also terrible politics. >> michael, the latest, boehner seems to be saying okay, with the new congress we will try, try to get this done somewhere around january 15th. the trouble is, there is no bill now. there is a whole new congress. so now you have to run something through the united states senate again, very hard to get this

through. >> and joy and i were talking about this in the green room, it is tough. you have to go back to the senate. you have to pass the bill, and congress can put amendments to it that the senate doesn't like. it goes back and forth. and maybe i'm just somebody who has down the safest firsthand. the easier thing would have been to do it last night. get it done with, and you could have lived with what happened. >> yeah, they should have are ripped the scab off and just done it. now they want to break this bill down in little pieces and do it over and over again, it is insanity. >> i don't know, chris christie seems more of a winner, long-term, than john boehner does. staten island, thank you both for joining us tonight. coming up, secretary of state hillary clinton is out of the hospital. karen finney will join us now, on what republicans are saying on whether or not she was really ill. and on the rewrite tonight, how the senate works and how it works much better than you think it does.

much better than anyone tells you it does, which is exactly what it did today when everybody thought the senate was not working at all.

i'm going to try something wicked hot tonight, something that may be impossible. i'm going to try to rewrite your understanding of how the senate works, that hopelessly grid locked senate, that booby-trapped senate that can never do something, that is always stuck. that senate where they got 89 votes for a big bill the other night. that senate, where they usually get more often than you will ever know, where they usually get 100 votes for most of the things they do. that is the senate. that is next in the rewrite. house rule number 53. big time taste should fit in a little time cup.

new single serve cafe collections from maxwell house now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. always good to the last drop. now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally. a great clean doesn't have to take longer. i'm done. i'm gonna read one of these.

i'm gonna read one of these! [ female announcer ] unlike sprays and dust rags, swiffer 360 duster's extender gets into hard-to-reach places without the hassle. so you can get unbelievable dust pickup in less time without missing a thing. i love that book. can you believe the twin did it? ♪ swiffer. great clean in less time. or your money back. you saw the reports all year about partisan grid lock in congress, how nothing can get done? then last week came the unsurprising news that this was the least productive congress since the 1940s, based simply on the number of bills past. then, when new year's eve east coast parties were beginning to wind down around 2:00 a.m. on january first, there was this huge breakthrough in the united states senate. >> the ayes are 89, the nays are

eight, the vote threshold having been achieved, the amendment is passed. >> a truly bipartisan vote in the senate. and it was the vote to raise income tax rates. 40 republicans voted for the bill. some of those republicans had never voted for an income tax increase in their lives. the last time any senate republicans voted for an income tax increase was 22 years ago. and that was a tax increase brokered by a republican president. only 19 republicans voted for that george h.w. bush tax increase, more than double that voted for the barack obama tax increase on new year's eve. this, in the institution crippled by the filibuster. this is in the institution where 89 votes for anything had been impossible for anyone to imagine before new year's eve. impossible to imagine only if you don't know that most of what

the senate passes gets more than 89 votes. the secret truth of the senate is that most things pass with 100 votes. but the senate does that when the news media is not looking. they do it out in the open. they do it with the c-span cameras rolling. it is all reported in the congressional record. but no one notices. on new year's day when the news media was chasing every news member in the house of representatives the senate was quietly open for business. so quietly that no one reported what was going on there. many of you were probably led to believe that the senate was closed. >> if they tweak something or change something it will have to go back to the senate. >> are they even in town? those senate democrats? a lot of them have left washington, d.c. >> yes, many senators, possibly most left town after the big vote on the fiscal cliff deal.

but one senator. one was still working. at 5:51 with the world focused on the house of representatives lurching toward the vote to approve, the senate's fiscal cliff deal, the majority leader went to the senate floor and said this. >> mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session following numbers 870, 911, 912, 913, 915, 916. >> now, that may look boring to you but that is the most exciting moment in senate history for number 916. and every other number you just heard, and the pages and pages of numbers that harry reid went on the read into the record, each one of those numbers was legislative code for a senate confirmation of someone appointed by president obama. that is right. the president who can't get his nominees confirmed in a grid locked senate. tell that to number 916, angela

tammy dickenson, who when no one was looking, got confirmed for the district of western missouri. and what you just saw was angela dickinson getting 100 votes for her confirmation even though there was only one senator, one, on the floor. harry reid, who every day does much more than most people in the news media realize and definitely accomplishes much more than the news media ever reports, pushed through pages and pages of nominations for president obama yesterday, when everyone was focused on what the house would do on the fiscal cliff vote. and harry reid did that with the active but invisible help of mitch mcconnell, who did his part to make sure that no republicans would vote against any of those nominations. and what did the united states senate do today? that dysfunctional united states

senate? according to the news media, absolutely nothing. congress is closed down, nothing to report. but at 5:03 today, harry reid was on the senate floor doing this. >> i now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session and the help committee be discharged from further consideration of presidential nomination 1304. and that the senate proceed a vote without intervening action or debate on the motion, vote to be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to this matter be printed in the record and the president immediately be notified of its action. >> how is that for drama? i love that, i could watch that all day. that was amazing. that was harry reid getting 100 votes for someone you have never heard of. to become commissioner of the

labor statistics. at the end of the year, and only the end of the year when labor statistics became controversial for the very first time. you remember all the crazy republican attacks on the bureau of labor statistics when they reported that unemployment was going down in final months of the presidential campaign. surely the next nominee to be president obama's commissioner of labor statistics was in for a grilling in the senate. surely her nomination would be filibustered. somebody would put a stop on it, but harry reid, when nobody was looking got together with mitch mcconnell, and got erica groshen confirmed with 100 votes. and while he was at it today,

harry reid got us a new ambassador to kenya, and got him confirmed. he is now the ambassador to kenya, a crucial posting. with the stability threatened. and while harry reid was at it he passed a little tax bill today. a pretty small one but it is still a tax bill. one that would include flu vaccines, within the definition of flu vaccines, trivial to you, but not to the makers of flu vaccines. so does mitch mcconnell hate harry reid so much that joe biden had to be brought in to negotiate the terms of the final fiscal cliff deal? the answer is that the truth is complicated. the news media hates complications. they crave personal drama. mcconnell hates reid, or boehner hates reid. the news media likes screen writers, the last minute rescue by the improbable joe biden. that is an easy story to tell. the truth is more complicated.

joe biden could have accomplished absolutely nothing. and he more than anyone knows this, he could have accomplished nothing without the ground work laid for him by president obama and harry reid and nancy pelosi. and harry reid knew that mitch mcconnell needed his republican senators to see him negotiating directly with the white house at the last minute. harry reid and the two former senators in the white house, joe biden and obama, knew that the republican senate leader needed that elevation of his negotiating status to help close the deal. not so much with the white house but with his fellow republicans in the senate. and so the egoless harry reid watched joe biden come in from the bull pen and get well-deserved credit for helping

to close the deal. and then, harry reid got back to work, to the day to day work. the governing chores that he does so well. including making sure that the nervous staff of the american embassy in kenya, in this post-benghazi era, when the staffs are especially on edge that they knew who their next leader was going to be. the majority leader of the united states senate got back to work today as he does most days. with the full and sometimes invisible cooperation of the minority leader of the united

states senate. and as usual, no one noticed.

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i'm not a doctor, but it seems as though the secretary of state has come down with a case of benghazi flu. >> hillary clinton, i guess she passed out somewhere, is she unconscious somewhere? >> are you suggesting she faked a concussion to avoid testifying on benghazi? >> i don't know where she is, but i think she could make a phone call. >> secretary of state hillary clinton is out of the hospital after being treated for a blood clot over her right ear, over the new year's weekend. doctors say they're confident she will make a full recovery.

joining me now is karen finney, msnbc political analyst, karen, you worked for hillary clinton. i'm not sure if you were monitoring, but i'm just been told that fox news reported that hillary clinton has been released from the hospital without any discussion about whether she was faking it tonight. >> how shocking. i'm surprised they actually -- lawrence they didn't find a doctor who could you know speak to the idea that it is possible to fake something like that, right? i mean, it is disgusting. it is really disappointing that we have come back to the conservatives. i mean, this is the one name they always come back to, and that is bashing hillary clinton. and i sort of thought because of the fact she has done such an incredible job in her term, 42 countries alone, that maybe just maybe, beating up on hillary

clinton has gone out of style for the republicans. but clearly not. anybody who knows her, lawrence, knows that she would not, not show up for a hearing, simply because of a stomach flu unless somebody told her you really can't go. she would say i can go do that, and come right back to bed. this is a woman who works incredibly hard and is somebody who always took responsibility for the agency she runs and for the work that she is accountable for. >> well, we don't have time, but i would have loved to have run the anthology of testifying, the first senate health care bill, the ways and means committee, the same bill. she testified to four committees at least in the house and senate bill, under intense pressure. she has deep it. there is no more experienced congressional testifyer in the cabinet than hillary clinton.